Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training, 3rd edition

Product Description

Starting Strength has been called the best and most useful of fitness books. The second edition, Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training, sold over 80,000 copies in a competitive global market for fitness education. Along with Practical Programming for Strength Training 2nd Edition, they form a simple, logical, and practical approach to strength training. Now, after six more years of testing and adjustment with thousands of athletes in seminars all over the country, the updated third edition expands and improves on the previous teaching methods and biomechanical analysis. No other book on barbell training ever written provides the detailed instruction on every aspect of the basic barbell exercises found in SS:BBT3. And while the methods for implementing barbell training detailed in the book are primarily aimed at young athletes, they have been successfully applied to everyone: young and old, male and female, fit and flabby, sick and healthy, weak and already strong. Many people all over the world have used the simple biological principle of stress/recovery/adaptation on which this method is based to improve their performance, their appearance, and their long-term health. With over 150,000 copies in print in three editions, Starting Strength is the most important method available to learn the most effective way to train with barbells -- the most important way to improve your strength, your health, and your life.

-- Why barbells are the most effective tools for strength training.
-- The mechanical basis of barbell training, concisely and logically explained.
-- All new photographs and improved illustrations of all the lifts, and the biomechanics behind them.
-- Complete, easy-to-follow instructions for performing the basic barbell exercises: the squat, press, deadlift, bench press, power clean, and the power snatch.
-- Revised instruction methods for all six lifts, proven effective in four years of seminar, military, and group instruction.
-- How the human body adapts to stress through recovery, and why this is the foundation of the development of strength and lifetime health.
-- How to program the basic exercises into the most effective program for long-term progress.
-- Completely indexed.
-- The most productive method in existence for anyone beginning a strength training program.

Top Reviews

Excellent resource that has had an enormous impact on my quality of life.
by Red_Tile (5 out of 5 stars)
March 24, 2017

Excellent resource that has had an enormous impact on my quality of life. Combine this with the free Starting Strength podcast and instructional YouTube vids and you have your self a worthwhile education and practical application class. I put a rack and barbell in my garage and have been applying what I have been learning over the past 6 months.

Bench was 195lbs for 5 reps and is now 245lbs

OHP was 115lbs for 5 and is now 155lbs

DL was 315lbs for 5 and is now 455lbs

BS was 285 for 5 and is now 365lbs

and all still climbing..

Update: My Squat is now 415lbs DL 505lbs

As an added benefit, I am not constantly hurting myself with bad form and having to take time to heal and thus lose gains. Also, I don't hurt when I get up in the morning. All this with previous C-Spine, knee and nerve damage injuries from three combat tours to Iraq.
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A GREAT system for getting strong the right way
by A. Dauria (4 out of 5 stars)
March 25, 2018

I heard about SS on the Art of Manliness podcast and was intrigued, as it coincides with my general philosophy around weight lifting - big, multi-joint movements that use the most muscle are the most efficient way to get strong and big. I had kicked it around but never really pursued it until a friend recommended it to me strongly. I would absolutely give the program 5 stars all the way, even if the adherents are little cultish :)

I give the book 4 stars because, overall, it's an excellent introduction to the method, system, program, philosophy, etc. of Starting Strength. Rippetoe's ("Rip" to the disciples) style is very strong and opinionated, which I like but I think needs to be taken with a grain of salt. That said, the diagrams (even in the Kindle edition) and explanations of the movements are really top notch and do a great job of helping you visualize the movements and do them right. I only deduct a star because some of the descriptions get a little long-winded. It can take a lot of patience to get through pages and pages of why low-bar is better than high-bar or front squat, e.g., with detailed anatomical descriptions, diagrams, physics lessons, etc.

The official Starting Strength app is a great complement to this book, and a really useful tool once you start training. It also contains a very consolidate set of excerpts and diagrams from the book that might be enough to get some people started on the system without reading the whole book. That said, I think it's still worth buying and reading the book for additional information and the context (even if some of it is a little drawn out).

I would recommend that anyone considering starting this on their own either consider finding a local SS coach (if you can afford it!) or SS-knowledgable friend to help get started, but with or without that I would recommend checking out the Starting Strength Youtube channel (DVD excerpt playlists for each move in particular) as well as the Art of Manliness videos where Rip coaches Brett on the moves.
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This is one of my all-time favorite books, and started me on the path of ...
by Robert Sanek (4 out of 5 stars)
January 16, 2017

This is one of my all-time favorite books, and started me on the path of strength training through compound lifts. I've even evangelized it to others, including both friends and parents. One of the best quotes of the book, which I still reflect on when demotivated to go to the gym: "A weak man is not as happy as that same man would be if he were strong."

The reason I give 4 stars, though, is due to the author's way of communicating his belief system; many times in the book, Rippetoe will dismiss alternative exercises or forms of performing an exercise out-of-hand, without providing any reasoning, only harsh words. Such discussion may come off as authoritative to some, but it can feel a bit like promoting intellectual insulation.
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Exercise Bible
by Eric (5 out of 5 stars)
April 14, 2016

The only bad thing about this book is that it makes you want to go up to people and correct their awful form. Once you learn it, you can't unlearn it.

Mark Rippetoe provides an irrefutable argument that the best exercises we should use in the gym are barbells.
1. The exercises we choose from should use many muscle groups
2. The exercise takes us through the full range of motion
3. The exercise allows us to lift the heaviest weights possible (with good form of course)

As a personal trainer It's a shame that this information is neglected in most standard textbooks of the subject.

If you're going to buy one book to become a stronger version of yourself and not waste time then make it this one. You won't regret it.
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Do the program
by Amazon Customer (4 out of 5 stars)
May 2, 2017

Excellent book that I believe everyone interested in the lifting of weights should read, even if powerlifting is not you're thing.

I'm not saying anything that hasn't been said before but in case you haven't been convinced by the time you get to me...

This book describes, in great detail, the squat, the deadlift, the bench press, the power clean, and the overhead press.

Each of these compound lifts are incredibly important to anyone who wants to gain strength and size. In this book Rippetoe outlines the benefits of strength in your everyday life, how to perform each of these lifts, offers a beginner's programme, and why what you do outside of the gym is just as important as what you do inside.

The book is full of useful diagrams and fancy charts if that's your kind of thing. I personally found them to be very good at putting the author's words into practical terms.

The book also has quite an extensive section of useful assistance exercises that you might run in conjunction with the novice program provided.

Now there are several, constant, "criticisms" of this program that should be addressed. I get annoyed every time I see them because these complaints wouldn't exist if the person could read and do the program like it was written.
"SS+GOMAD made me fat, wtf Rip?!"

In a section on diet Rippetoe recommends that the 180cm, 55kg, kids out there drastically increase their caloric intake by drinking a gallon of milk a day (GOMAD) This seems a bit drastic but, speaking from experience here, you'll hit a wall much faster if you're dying to keep that "skinny pack" while attempting a program such as this.
So the advice makes sense, the author recommends this right up until the previously underweight athlete has gained enough mass, then they can ease off.

However there exists a proportion of society with very poor reading comprehension. In that same diet section Rippetoe says that a gallon of milk is not for those of you who already have the weight to begin with. However a million screaming idiots have since littered message boards bitching about not looking like Klokov because they tried GOMAD while being 20 kilos overweight. I want to seize every one of them by the collar and make them read the damn book next time before they loudly inform the internet that they can't read properly.

The other criticism I hear a lot is
"T-Rex mode! Rippletits said squats would make my arms grow but now my physique is imbalanced"

Again, poor reading comprehension strikes. Rippetoe does say that you'll add muscle mass everywhere doing anything if you're an untrained individual. He did not, however, say that you'll have arms like Arnie after a few squats.

SS is also a program with lots of leg work, very true. However the author also states that assistance exercises such as chin ups and dips are very useful. So much so that he included chin ups on the base program already. He even includes a few pages on how to do a barbell curl. So if you'd read the book you would have known maybe a few dips after your main session would have been a good idea.

So basically, read the book properly and stop complaining about the program when you didn't even do it.
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Good advice and strong opinions
by AB Kay (3 out of 5 stars)
September 19, 2018

I'm not a fitness professional, but the general consensus seems to be that programs like starting strength are very good for beginners (squat-intensive whole body workout repeated three times a week, small number of reps per set, increase weight every workout). This book offers some coaching on how to perform the exercises (the basic instructions for the program can be found anywhere on the internet). It does it's job, though now that I've read it I'm really not sure it's necessary. Youtube and internet articles (some written by the author!) are a better teacher, and you really should find someone to show you the basics, even its a one time coaching session at the local YMCA.

The book and Rippetoe's internet articles very much argues that you must follow the program exactly, and that if you are unsuccessful, it is because you did not follow the program. I've taught people before (other topics) so I appreciate that students are always taking shortcuts or asking to apply adaptations and customizations that don't apply to beginners. However, if you read and watch other coaches, some of this absolutism is overkill. (e.g., on the topic of whether high or low bar squats are better suited to the program). His dietary advice... is old fashioned and seemingly not informed by science, but you can take it with a grain of salt.
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Great material. Hard to understand.
by C. Lighthouse (4 out of 5 stars)
July 4, 2018

This is a widely acclaimed book that teaches beginners how to build muscle strength.

Pros:
+ Mark knows his stuff.
+ Very good strength training program for beginners.

Cons:
- It's hard to understand.
- There is no overview of each exercise.

I had to read everything three times, look up words, AND watch videos--and I am still not sure that I fully understand everything. To be fair, I knew nothing about weightlifting before; I never even stepped into a gym before in my life. But I consider myself a quick learner and it didn't have to be so complicated.

Suggestions:
1. Add a glossary. If I knew what "spine of the scapula" meant I probably wouldn't be needing this book in the first place.
2. More paragraph headings and/or a checklist would be very useful. There are easily a dozen things to keep in mind for each exercise.
3. It's obvious that Mark struggles to get certain points across such as proper lifting form for the squat. I still have no idea what he means about using the hips to squat. Isn't the squat a whole body exercise? Maybe try to explain it in different ways until you find a way that people get?

The bottom line:

Great material. Hard to understand.
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Great book for a newbie - like me
by Richard Shaw (5 out of 5 stars)
March 14, 2015

I heard Mark Rippetoe talk about Starting Strength on a podcast last fall. For the previous year or so I'd been cycling and running to get back in shape. But, being in my late 50s, it was much harder to do than in years past. When I heard Rippetoe I realized that I needed to gain strength not just work on stamina/cardio. I've never done any kind of weight training before and was cautious to do so because I didn't want to injure myself. Starting Strength is 5 basic lifts with in depth explanations of each lift. That I can do!

I found a Starting Strength coach and started the program. I've been on it for about 5 months (albeit with a very irregular schedule) and have had excellent results. I started with squatting with an 11 lbs. bar and last workout I squatted 210 (3x5) - (see the attached picture). My deadlift started around 65 lbs. and I'm now at 220 (1x5). The other lifts are coming along well too. In real life this translates into a better overall appearance and physical stability. I'm making progress to being much healthier and stronger.

The book is packed with useful information. For a beginner like me it's too much to take in at first. But I read, do the lifts, then read some more and it all begins to sink in. The book describes in detail the correct way to do each lift and progressively increase the weight. Following these techniques (maybe with a coach) it's possible to gain strength without injury.

This is the only weight training book I've read. While there may be other good books I'm glad that Starting Strength was the first one I've read.
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If only I read this sooner
by AL (5 out of 5 stars)
September 30, 2015

After reading numerous weightlifting books over the last 20 years, I truly wish my journey started with this one. Each exercise is explained with such detail and a whole lot of physics that it simply blows away anything else I've read....including the NSCA Textbook. The program is simple and extremely effective. It includes all the basic exercises that any halfway decent program would include, and if you're doing a program that doesn't include these exercises you are seriously wasting your time. I would not consider myself a novice and have years of lifting experience but I've been on this program for 3 months, and have made steady gains. Started squatting 355 for 5 and am now up to 470 for 5 (1RM when I started was 475). And that's just squats. You will not be disappointed. I highly recommend this book as well as "Practical Programming for Strength Training" to everyone I talk to about lifting. Practical Programming has assured me that I will not be bored for years to come!

So if you're a natural lifter and/or just starting out and are looking for one of the best programs out there, look no further than "Starting Strength"
-Mark I want to thank you for this and all your contributions. Your hard work and years of experience is greatly appreciated. I only wish I started following you sooner.-
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There is enough technical information to satisfy even the most scientific minded among us and enough
by bigjan85 (5 out of 5 stars)
March 14, 2017

I've been training with free weights off and on for 17 years and I only wish I would have read this when I first started. Priceless information in this book. Rippetoe is a legend in the strength training world and this book shows why. There is enough technical information to satisfy even the most scientific minded among us and enough clear-cut instruction to enable a complete beginner to step under a loaded barbell with confidence. Whether you've ever wanted to possess superhero strength or simply become a stronger version of yourself, you can learn all you need to get started on the path to achieving your goals.

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